Lamp transfer



Feb. 18, 1958 Filed June 1'7, 1955 R. S. DORON EI'AL LAMP TRANSFER 4 Sheets-Sheet l i Ill! l i I Q i Q VENTORJ EH56? E. YEO

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Feb. 18, 1958 R. s. DORON ETAL 2,823,315

LAMP TRANSFER Filed June 17, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTORS ERNEST E. YEO

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1958 R. s. DORON ET AL ,82

LAMP TRANSFER Filed June 17, 1955 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 Fig. 6

, INVENTORJ. ERNEST E. v50 RICHARD J. DORON 2,823,815 Patented F eh. I 8, 1958 LAMP TRANSFER Richard S. Daron, Salem, and Ernest E. Yeo, Wenham, Mass, assignors to Sylvauia Electric Products Ina, Salem, Mass., a corporation of Massachusetts Application June 17, 1955, Serial No. 516,166

9 Claims. (Cl. 214--91) This invention relates to lamp transfer apparatus, and more particularly to apparatus for transferring partially completed lamps from a sealing machine to an exhaust machine in an integrated operation for manufacturing lamps.

The transfer apparatus of our invention is adapted to transfer partially finished lamps from a sealing machine to an exhaust machine in an integrated lampmaking operation, and therefore, prior to discussing the objects and features of our invention, a brief description of the pertinent aspects of the particular sealing and exhaust machines employed will best serve to set forth the context of our invention. In the sealing machine lamp mounts containing all of the internal operating elements of the lamp are sealed into'glass envelopes or bulbs, and when these partially completed lamps issue from the sealing machine, they have an exhaust pin and lead-in wires extending downwardly from the base rim of the neck of the lamp. In the exhaust machine these partially completed lamps are exhausted and filled with an inert gas, after which the exhaust pin is cut off and sealed by a tipping torch at the final stage of the exhaust machine.

One of the functions of the transfer apparatus of our invention is to transfer such partially completed lamps from the sealing machine to the exhaust machine. However, in an integrated automatic lamp'making operation a number of problems are presented. First, it is important to maintain the lamps in accurate position of orientation with respect to thclead-in wires. in wires serves as a fuse wire and is secured to the side of' the lamp base at a later stage in the manufacture. The other lead-in wire connects the filament to the source of current and is secured to the center eyelet of the base. It is necessary to maintain a fixed orientation of the wires during transfer from the sealing machine to the exhaust machine so that these two wires can be picked up and positioned at a later stage in the manufacture of the lamp by automatic wire-positioning mechanisms. Another problem of importance relates to maintaining an accurate position between a pair of partially completed lamps being transferred simultaneously. The transfer apparatus of our invention is employed with sealing machines and exhaust machines that operate on a double indexing principle with lamps moving in pairs from station to station. Thus a pair of lamps must be transferred simultaneously and at such times the spacing between pairs is critical.

A further problem relates to positioning the lamps accurately in the exhaust heads so that the tipping torch which cuts off the exhaust tube can operate as close to the base of the lamp as possible. Therefore, the transfer mechanism must be further adapted to deposit the exhaust tube of the lamp into the exhaust head of the exhaust machine accurately so that the tipping torch may be adjusted precisely to cut off the exhaust tube asclose to of the lamp as possible. Another problem One of the lead- L of importance arises out of the fact that the exhaust machine with which our invention is employed performs its operation with the lamp inverted and with the ex haust tube extending upwardly into the exhaust heads. Thus the transfer apparatus must also turn the lamp over and because of this the problem of obtaining accurate registration of lamps during transfer is further complicated.

Therefore, it is an object of our invention to provide transfer apparatus for partially completed lamps from a sealing machine to an exhaust machine, and simultane' ously both to invert the said lamps and to deliver them to the exhaust machine accurately and at the same height from one transfer to another. An additional object of our invention is to provide such an apparatus which will also maintain a positive and fixed orientation of the partially completed lamps with respect to the lead-in wires thereof during every transfer. Still another object of our invention is to provide such a transfer apparatus with an accurate longitudinal spacing so that the sealing machine and the exhaust machine may both be operated on a double indexing principle.

In the accomplishment of these and other objects of our invention in a preferred embodiment thereof, we employ a transfer apparatus mounted between a sealing machine and an exhaust machine, both of which operate on the double indexing principle. In our apparatus a pair of vacuum chucks are mounted on a pair of swinging arms in position adjacent to the sealing machineand they are lowered onto a pair of adjacent lamps during a dwell period in the motion of the sealing machine. Thereafter the chucks are raised to clear the lamps from the sealing machine and pivoted towards the exhaust machine to an intermediate position. At the intermediate position, the vacuum is cut off and the vacuum chucks are again raised slightly and through a valving arrangement release the lamps carried by them at that time. Upon release of the lamps they drop downwardly a short space into two pairs of pivotally mounted jaw members which at that time remain partially open to receive the exhaust tubes of the lamps. Once the lamps have dropped onto these jaw members, the jaw members are closed and grip the lamps tightly by the exhaust tubes, following which the said jaws are swung downwardly through a t arc to invert the lamps. From this point the jaws are carried upwardly a short space so that the exhaust tubes of the lamps may enter the exhaust heads of the exhaust machine during a dwell period in the motion of the exhaust machine. Thereafter the cycle is again repeated.

It is a feature of our invention that the sealing machine and exhaust machine are driven in geared relation and that the dwell periods in the motion thereof do not coincide. Still another feature of our invention is that during transfer, the lamps are taken from the sealing machine while that machine is stopped and the exhaust machine is moving, and placed on the exhaust machine while the latter is stopped and the sealing machine moving. One machine is, for example, 60 ahead of the other in its motion. Thus the machine on which the transfer mechanism is immediately operating is stopped, and the other moving; the speeds of the machine can accordingly be higher than would be possible if both machines were stopped during the entire transfer from one to the other.

Still another feature of our invention resides in the fact that the jaw members which receive the lamps and deliver them to the exhaust heads receive the lamps in an upright position so that the lamps may drop down and rest on the surface of the jaws with the exhaust tubes of the lamps entering between the jaws. Thereafter when the lamps are inverted and carried upwardly into the exhaust heads, the lamps will always have the same height relative to the exhaust machine. In addition, since the lamps drop into the jaws before the jaws close completely, it is not necessary to maintain an extremely accurate registration between the swinging arms and jaws at the intermediate transfer osition. Still another feature of our invention resides in the fact that the lamps are maintained under positive control by the transfer apparatus of our invention during the entire period of transfer with the exception of the brief moment during which the lamps are dropped from the vacuum chucks onto the jaw members. It will be noted, of course, that during this brief moment there is little or no tendency for the lamps to disorient.

Further'objects and features of our invention will be best understood and appreciated from a detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a view in side elevation of the basic elements of the transfer apparatus of our invention with the lower half thereof broken away to show operative elements;

Fig. 2 is a plan view of certain elements shown in Fig. 1 showing in phantom lines positions of various elements and the stations of a fragment of a sealing machine and exhaust machine;

Fig. 3 is a view in front elevation of the operative elements shown in the lower left-hand portion of Fig. 1;

Fig. 4 is a partially broken away view in front elevation of the right-hand upper middle portion of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of the lamp-receiving jaw members; and

Fig. 6 is a fragmentary sectional view shOWing the valving arrangement for the exhaust heads employed in our invention.

The preferred embodiment of our invention herein shown includes in its general organization a lamp pickup assembly indicated at 10 and a lamp delivery assembly indicated at 12 in Fig. 1. These assemblies are mounted on base elements 14 and 16 respectively and are positioned in between a sealing machine and an exhaust machine with the pick-up assembly 10 being adjacent to the sealing machine and the delivery assembly 12 being adjacent to the exhaust machine. It will be understood that the sealing machine and exhaust machine are driven in geared relation and operate on a principle of double indexing. A pair of lamps 18 shown throughout in phantom lines are picked up by the pick-up assembly 10 from the sealing machine during a dwell period in the 1 motion thereof. while the delivery assembly 12 is simultaneously delivering a pair of lamps 18 to the exhaust machine. During the period of motion of the sealing machine. and exhaust machine, the transfer apparatus takes the pair of lamps 18 picked up during the previous I dwell period of the exhaust machine and transfers the said pair from the pick-up assembly 10 to the delivery assembly 12. The operative elements for the pick-up assembly 10 are indicated generally at 20 in Fig. 1 and the operative elements for the delivery assembly 12 are indicated generally at 22 in Fig. 1.

The pick-up assembly 10 comprises a pair of rotatable and vertically movable shafts 24 (see also Fig. 3) held in position of vertical alignment by upper bearings 26 and lower bearings 28. Near their upper ends the shafts 24 each carry a swinging pick-up arm 30 on the end of each of which is mounted a vertically disposed vacuum chuck 32.

The valving arrangement for the vacuum chucks 32 is shown in Fig. 6 wherein it will be seen that a spindle 34 is mounted for vertical sliding motion in a housing 36, and a port 38 in the spindle 34 is brought into registration with a vacuum conduit in the housing 36 when the spindle 34 is elevated relative to the housing 36. This motion occurs when the arms 30 are pivoted to bring the chucks over lamps 18 and lowered onto the lamps. Contact of the lamps 18 raises the spindle 34 bringing the port 38 into registration with the conduit 40 thereby supplying vacuum to the chuck 32 and permitting the arms 34} to carry the lamps 18 upwardly when the said arms 30 are raised. A spring detent 42 engages a shallow depression 44 in the spindle 34 and serves to hold the spindle 34 in the up position during transfer of a lamp 18. The vacuum to the chucks 32 is cut off and hence the lamps 18 are released by the chucks 32 after the arms 3%) have been raised from the pick-up station and swung inwardly to a transfer station. This is accomplished by again raising the arms 30 slightly, after the vacuum is cut off, and bringing the upper portion of the spindles 34 against fixed depending abutments 46. The upward motion of the arms 30 has the effect of carrying the housing 36 upwardly so that the ball 42 rides out of the depression 44 in the spindle 34 and the port 38 moves out of registration with the vacuum conduit 40.

The vertical and swinging motions of the arms 30 are brought about by the operative elements indicated at 20 in the lower left-hand corner of Fig. 1 and shown also in Fig. 3. These elements are shown at the extreme vertical position in Figs. 1 and 3 and include a cross head 59 carrying bearings 52 through which the shafts 24 are journalled. The bearings 52 each engage an upper and lower collar 54 mounted on the shafts 24, and thus while the cross head may carry the shafts 24 up and down, the shafts 24 are still free to rotate in the bearings 52. The vertical motion of the cross head 50 is brought about by operation of a lever arm 56 operating through links 58 and being driven by a cam 60 mounted on a camshaft 62 which is driven in geared relationship with the drive elements for both the sealing machine and the exhaust machine. Rotation of the shafts 24 and hence pivotal motion of the arms 30 is brought about by operation of a similarly driven cam 64 mounted on a camshaft 66 and arranged to drive a lever arm 68 which operates through link arms 70 and 72 to drive a pivot arm 74 for each shaft 24. The pivot arms 74 are mounted on rotatable bushings 76, which in turn support sliding elements 78. The sliding elements 78 engage vertical bars 80 which are in turn secured to shafts 24 in an offset position from the axis thereof by means of collars 82. The bushings 76 are retained against vertical motion by means of upper bearing blocks 84 connected through to the lower bearing blocks 28 by means of an internal sleeve 86 through which the shafts 24 freely slide. Thus it will be seen that the operation of the links 72 draws the pivot arms 74 back and forth and through the guide elements 78, the bars 80 are pivoted and hence the shafts 24 are likewise pivoted regardless of the vertical position that the shafts 24 may occupy at any given time.

In operation the pick-up assembly of our invention is driven through cams 60 and 64 to carry the arms 30 into position directly above the pair of lamps to be picked up at the instant the sealing machine comes to rest. The cam 60 operates to lower the vacuum chucks 32 onto the lamps 18 and when the spindle 34 contacts the lamps 18, its downward motion is halted and the housing 36 continues down along with the arms 30 until the vacuum is supplied to the chucks 32 through the conduit 40. Thereafter the cam 60 serves to elevate the arms 30 to a position clear of the support elements of the sealing machine. When this is done, the cam 64 commences to operate through its links 70 and 72 to swing the arms 30 inwardly to the intermediate transfer station, and once the arms 30 arrive at this inner station the cam 60 again serves to elevate the shafts 24 and cause the cut off of the vacuum at the chucks 32 as was previously described. When the vacuum is cut off, the lamps 18 drop and are picked up by the delivery assembly as will be more fully described below.

The delivery assembly 12 is mounted on the base element 16, which in turn supports upright fixed shafts 90 extending upwardly andbeingjoined adross at theifupper" ends by a cross head 92. The cross head 92 serves'to support the depending abutments 46 previously described. The principal component of the delivery assembly 12 is a carriage 94 mounted to slide vertically on shafts 90. Vertical motion of the carriage 94 is accomplished by means of a drive rod 96 operating through a link 98 and being actuated by a lever arm 100, which is in turn driven by a cam 102 mounted on camshaft 104 driven in geared. relationship to the actuating elements of the sealing machine and the exhaust machine. The carriage 94 in cludes vertically disposed brace elements 106 journalled to carry an upper horizontal shaft 108 and a lower shaft 110. The shaft 110 carries a pair of gear segments 111 and 112 mounted freely thereon and the gear segment 111 drives a pinion 11 4 fixed to shaft 108, while the gear segment 112 drives a pinion 116 which is mounted to rotate freely on the shaft 108. The shaft 108 also may be seen in Fig. 5 and carries a pair of jaws 120 mounted pivotally on the connecting base member 122 secured to the shaft 108. The jaws 120 are opened and closed as may be appropriate by means of a link124 driven by an arm 126, which is in turn mounted on a hub 128 connected to the pinion 116. The link 124 drives a bell crank 126 which serves to open one of the jaws 120 through meshing gears 128 and also operates a link 130 which in turn opens the other pair of jaws 120 through similar gears 128. The gear segment 111 is driven by a rod 132 operating through a link 134 and a lever arm 136 actuated by a cam 138 mounted on the camshaft 104. The gear segment 112 is similarly driven by a rod 140 actuated by a cam 142 through links and levers in a fashion similar to drive elements for the rod 132.

When the pick-up assembly transfers a pair of lamps 18 to the intermediate transfer position and is about to drop the lamps through the release of the vacuum of the vacuum chucks 32, the operative elements 22 of the delivery assembly 12 swing the jaws 120 upwardly into the intermediate transfer station and cause the jaws 120 to close partially around the exhaust tube of each of the lamps 18. It should be noted, however, that the jaws are not fully closed at this point and that the lamp is free to drop onto the jaws 120 at this time. Thereafter the arms 30 of the pick-up assembly continue to rise and the vacuum is cut off from the vacuum chucks 32 and the lamps 18 drop onto the jaws 120 a short distance. At this point the drive elements 22 of the delivery assembly 12 cause the jaws 120 to close around the ex haust tube of the lamp 18 and immediately thereafter the carriage 94 is lowered slightly and the jaws 120 are swung downwardly through a 180 are so as to completely invert the lamps 18. At this point the carriage 94 is elevated, the lamps 18 are carried upwardly, and the exhaust tube of the lamp 18 is delivered into the compression rubber tubing in the exhaust heads on the exhaust machine, the heads being, for example, of the type shown in the copending application of Ernest E. Yeo and David P. Drown for an Exhaust Head, Serial No. 515,852, filed June 16, 1955, now Patent No. 2,775,271. The rubber is compressed around the exhaust tube by the head. At this point the jaws 120 are opened by operation of the cam 142, the carriage 94 is lowered by operation of cam 104, and the jaws 120 are swung back to the intermediate transfer station by cam 138.

It will be noted that an extremely accurate registration between the pick-up assembly 10 and the delivery assembly 12 is not necessary with our invention. To be sure, the arms 30 must position the vacuum chucks 32 over the lamps 18 of the sealing machine with sufiicient accuracy to pick them up, but since the jaws 120 are only partly closed when the transfer of the lamps 18 from the vacuum chucks 32 to the jaws 120 is made, a considerable leeway of tolerance is allowable at this point. On the other hand, it will be understood that the direct motion of the jaws 120 may be very accurately gauged and oncethe lamps 18 are held firmly in the jaws they are carried to "the exhaust machine and delivered thereto under conditions of extreme accuracy of position.

Since numerous minor variations of the preferred embodiment of our invention will now be apparent to those skilled in the art, it is not our intention to confine the invention to the precise form herein shown, but rather to limit it in terms of the appended claims.

Having thus described and disclosed a preferred embodiment of our invention, what we claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. Apparatus for transferring lamps comprising a base, an arm pivotally mounted on said base to swing from a pick-up station to an intermediate transfer station, pickup means on said arm for picking up lamps at said pickup station, lamp delivery means for transferring said lamps from said intermediate station to a delivery station, means in said delivery means for loosely receiving said lamps, means for releasing said lamps held by said pick-up means at said intermediate transfer station after said lamps have been loosely received by said delivery means, and means for thereafter fixing said lamps accurately in position on said delivery means whereby said pick-up means may be positioned accurately for picking up lamps and said delivery means may be positioned accurately for delivering said lamps while accurate positioning between said pick-up and delivery means is not necessary.

2. Apparatus for transferring lamps comprising a base, an arm pivotally mounted on said base to swing from a pick-up station to an intermediate transfer station, pick-up means on said arm for picking up lamps at said pick-up station, lamp delivery means for transferring said lamps from said intermediate station to a delivery station, means in said delivery means for loosely receiving said lamps and thereafter fixing said lamps accurately in position on said delivery means whereby said pickup means may be positioned accurately for picking up lamps and said delivery means may be positioned accurately for delivering said lamps while accurate positioning between said pick-up and delivery means is not necessary, including jaws pivotally mounted on said delivery means for receiving said lamps, means for partially closing said jaws around a lamp held by said pickup means at said intermediate transfer station, means for thereafter releasing said lamp so held, and means for thereafter closing the jaws around said lamp, whereby said lamp drops freely into said jaws but is thereafter held accurately in position on said delivery means by said jaws.

3. Apparatus for transferring pairs of lamps from one double indexing machine to another, comprising, a base, a pair of arms each pivotally mounted on said base to swing from a pick-up station to an intermediate transfer station, pick-up means on each said arm for picking up a pair of lamps at a time at said pick-up station, lamp delivery means for transferring said pair of lamps from said intermediate transfer station to a delivery station, means for loosely receiving said pair of lamps in said delivery means from said pick-up means, means for releasing said pair of lamps held by said pick-up means at said intermediate transfer station after said pair of lamps have been loosely received by said lamp delivery means, and means for thereafter positioning said pair of lamps accurately relative to each other and relative to said delivery means, whereby said pick-up means may be positioned accurately for picking up lamps and said delivery means may be positioned accurately for delivering said lamps while accurate positioning between said pick-up delivery means is not necessary.

4. Apparatus for transferring and inverting lamps comprising, a base, a carriage mounted on said base for vertical motion, a pair of jaws mounted on said carriage pivotally mounted to open and close and also pivotally mounted to swing from an upright position at areceiving station to an inverted position at a delivery station, means for closing said jaws around a lamp in said upright position, and means for swinging said jaws to said inverted position at said delivery station.

5. The transfer apparatus defined in claim 4 further characterized by means for moving said carriage upwardly at said delivery station.

6. The transfer apparatus defined in claim 4 further characterized by means for partially opening said jaws at said receiving station to receive a lamp without accurate positioning whereby said closing means thereafter accurately positions said lamp.

7. Apparatus for transferring and inverting lamps, comprising, a base, an arm pivotally mounted on said base to swing from a lamp pick-up station to an intermediate transfer station, a vacuum chuck on said arm for picking up a lamp at said pick-up station, means for supplying vacuum to said chuck when said chuck is at said pickup station, a pair of jaws pivotally mounted on said base to swing from an upright position at said intermediate transfer station to an inverted position at a delivery station, means for partially opening said jaws at said intermediate transfer position loosely to receive a lamp from said chuck, means for cutting off said vacuum when said chuck is at said intermediate transfer station and said jaws have loosely received a lamp therefrom, and means for thereafter closing said jaws and pivoting said jaws to said inverted position at said delivery station.

8, Apparatus for transferring and inverting a pair of lamps simultaneously comprising, a base, a pair of arms pivotally mounted on said base to swing from a lamp pick-up station to an intermediate transfer station, a vac uum chuck on each said arm for picking up a lamp at Said pick-up station, means for supplying vacuum to said chucks when said chucks are at said pick-up station and for cutting off said vacuum when said chucks are at said intermediate transfer station, two pairs of jaws pivotally mounted on said base to swing from an upright position at said intermediate transfer station to an inverted position at a delivery station, means for partially opening said jaws at said intermediate transfer station loosely to receive lamps from said chucks and means for thereafter closing said jaws and pivoting said jaws to an inverted position at said delivery station, whereby said arms may be accurately positioned to bring said chucks to a precise position for picking up said lamps and said jaws may be accurately positioned to bring said lamps to a precise point at said delivery station but accurate interpositioning between said jaws and lamps held by said chucks is not required at said intermediate transfer station.

9. Lamp transfer apparatus in which partially finished lamps including a bulb, a mount sealed therein, a base rim, and a depending exhaust pin are transferred from a sealing machine to an exhaust machine with the exhaust pin of the lamp being inserted into an exhaust head of said exhaust machine, said transfer apparatus having in combination, a base disposed between said seal ing machine and said exhaust machine, a pair of jaws mounted on said base to swing from an upright position to an inverted position, means for partially opening said jaws, means for depositing a lamp in said jaws in said upright position with said pin free therein and with said base rim resting on said jaws, means for thereafter closing said jaws and retaining them in tight gripping relation On said pin, mechanism for thereafter swinging said jaws to said inverted position, and means for thereafter elevating said jaws wherebysaid bulb is carrier upward with said pin pointing upward for insertion into an exhaust head.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,832,677 Wildeboer Nov. 17, 1931 1,958,846 Christensen May 15, 1934 1,997,694 Morick et 211. Apr. 16, 1935 2,069,086 Donovan et a1. Jan. 26, 1937 2,554,013 Cooper et a1 May 22, 1951 

